Newcastle United's Premier League squad has been confirmed and it's two players short of the 25-man threshold.
The Magpies named 25 players in their squad for the first half of the 2023-24 season but have since omitted two players from the list without replacing them. £52m summer signing Sandro Tonali was handed a 10-month betting ban earlier in the season, rendering him ineligible for the remainder of the campaign.
While Newcastle could technically still name the player in the squad, they refrained from doing so given that he is unavailable to play until August 2024. The other player removed from Newcastle's squad for the second half of the campaign was Javier Manquillo following his January move to Celta Vigo.
But anyone looking at Newcastle's 23-man squad for the second half of the campaign will notice a few key players are missing. Most notably Tino Livramento, Lewis Miley, Elliot Anderson and Lewis Hall.
Hall and Livramento joined Newcastle in the summer for what will be a combined fee of £59million once Hall's obligation to buy clause in his loan move from Chelsea is triggered. But neither player needs to be named in Newcastle's squad due to their age.
As a result, Harvey Barnes is the only signing made by Newcastle this season to be named in the club's current Premier League squad list.
Premier League squads are limited to 'senior' players above the age of 21. For the 2023-24 season, any player born on or after January 1, 2002 can not be named in a Premier League squad but are still eligible to play as an 'under-21' player.
Anderson and Miley have progressed into the first team from Newcastle's academy but aren't named in the Premier League squad due to their age. It also allows academy players such as Travis Hernes, Alex Murphy, Ben Parkinson and Amadou Diallo to feature for the club in Premier League matches.
Newcastle's list of under-21s players named by the Premier League also includes Garang Kuol and Yankuba Minteh, both of whom are out on loan in the Dutch Eredivisie.
Bolstering squads with first-team ready under-21s players can prove effective as it provides managers with more options and flexibility while complying to the 25-man Premier League rules. Last season, Newcastle signed Anthony Gordon from Everton but did not need to name him in their squad for the second half of the season due to his age.
As Gordon is now 22, he has to be named in Newcastle's squad for the 2023-24 season. Elliot Anderson and Tino Livramento will both need to be named in The Magpies' 25-man squad list for next season though the likes of Hall and Miley can remain as under-21s players.
Here is Newcastle's current 23 man squad for the Premier League...
